Jewelry attachment



April 10, 1951 E. A. BCHLINGER JEWELRY ATTACHMENT Filed March 15, 1946 INVENTOR ERNST Fl. BOHL/NGER BY 5 ZTTORNEY Patented Apr. 10, 1951 JEWELRY ATTACHMENT Ernst A. Bohlinger, Astoria, Y., assignor to Ernst A. 'Bohlinger and Gustave A. Bohlinger, hlinger Bros, New York,

doing business as Bo Application March 15, 1946, Serial No. 654,736

This invention relates to jewelry and, more particularly, pertains to an accessory for transforming a pin-attached article of jewelry such as a brooch, into a pendant or band-attached ornament, like a necklace, lavaliere or choker.

It is an object of the invention to provide an accessory of the character described which is inexpensive to manufacture and easy to use.

It is another object of the invention to provide an accessory of the character described which can be firmly secured to an article of jewelry of the type under discussion regardless of the number or length of attaching pins or of the size or configuration of the ornamental element of said article.

vide an accessory of the character described which will hold the article of jewelry properly balanced when suspended from aband. 1

It is an additional object of the invention to provide an accessory of the character described which will prevent the pin or ornamental element of the article of jewelry from scratching a persons skin. 7

Other objects of this invention will in part be obvious and in part hereinafter pointed out.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combinations of elements, and arrangements of parts which will 'be exemplified in'the constructions hereinafter described; and of which the scope of application will be indicated in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, in which are shown various possible embodiments of this invention,

Fig. 1 is a rear elevational view of a bandattachedpendant ornament, comprising a brooch having secured thereto a chain-suspended accessory embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of said accessory;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of another accessory embodying a modified'form of the invention; and

Figs. 4 and 5 are sectional views, taken substantially along the lines 4-4 and 5-5, respectively, of Fig. 1.

Referring now to the drawings, ID denotes a brooch of conventional design such as is adapted to be used in conjunction with an accessory l2 embodying my invention. Said brooch comprises an ornamental element I4 which, for the purposes of this invention and regardless of its shape and design will be referred to arbitrarily hereinafter as a plaque. The brooch also includes an attaching pin 16, one end of which is captively but 6 Claims. (01. 63-1) movably held to the back of the plaque, as by a ornamental purposes.

, .l .It is a further object of the invention to propivot l8, and the other end of which is detach ably secured to the back of the plaque at a point spaced from the pivot, as by a suitablecatch 20.

The plaque is formed with a backing member or frame 22 of some rigid material such as wood, plastic, silver or gold and, when made of precious metal, usually has a rear face of irregular configuration, as indicated in Figs. 1 and 5, in order to minimize the amount of material used, or for In addition, it is quite common for the frame to include open work and/or ornamental stones 24 which enhance the appearance of the brooch in front but further break up the rear face. This inherently irregular configurationof the rear face heretofore has made difficult the provision of an accessory of the type to which this invention relates and which couldfirmly hold plaques of diverse shapes.

It is also pointed out that the edges of the frame often have many sharp points 26, and the stones and stone mountings have sharp portions facing the back of the brooch. If the plaque is not firmly held, these sharp parts irritate and scratch a wearers skin.

Pursuant to the present invention the accessory I2 is constructed in such fashion as to avoid the foregoing troubles. Essentially said accessory comprises four basic elements, to Wit:

(a) Means adapted to be detachably coupled to'thepin I6. Preferably this means engages the pin, as by encirclement, at at least two points spaced along the length of the pin. By way of example said means may comprise a sleeve or a pair of elements with aligned apertures through which the pin can he slipped when the latch '20 r is open, or said means may take the form of a pair of aligned spring clips-which can be snapped onto the pin when said-latch is closed.

(1)) '-Means secured to the means a for contacting the rear face of the plaque at at least two points, one on each lateral side of thepin. The means 12 should be so constructed that the mentioned contacts can be effected regardless of the configuration of the rear face of the plaque, and, to this end, the means b includes resilient or selfform-maintaining but deformable elements which can press against either raised or depressed points on the back of the plaque.

(c) A band such as a chain, strap or ribbon, and

(d) Means to connect the ends of the band to means a.

As shown in Figs. 1, 2, 4 and 5 the accessory I2 is formed from sheet metal stock by blanking,

punching and bending to provide a fiat elongated body 28 having upstanding integral ears 30 at its opposite ends. Said ears are pierced by aligned apertures 32, and, together with the body 28, constitute the means a to .detachably couple the accessory to the pin IS.

The body also has integral lateral arms 34 extending on both sides thereof and adapted to press against the rear face of the plaque. As mentioned earlier, these arms must be able to press against raised or depressed portions at the back of the plaque and, for this purpose, the stock from which the accessory is formed should either be a resilient material, e. g. Phosphor bronze or plastic, or a deformable self-form-maintaining material, e. g. soft or light gauge (17) steel, aluminum or copper. In the latter case the accessory may be sold with the arms 34 fiat, i. e. in the plane of the body l2 and the user can bend the arms forwardly sufficiently to cause them to engage the rear face of the plaque, the slight resilience of the stock sufficing to maintain engagement between the arms and plaque. In the former case the arms can be bent forwardly during manufacture to an extent sufficient to engage the deepest depression likely to be present in the rear face of a plaque, the substantial resilience of the arms permitting them to be sprung backward when they engage lesser depressions or raised portions at the back of a plaque. As will be apparent, said arms 34 constitute the means 17.

A chain 36 (the means is connected to the body by fittings 38, one end of each of which is linked to an end of the chain and the other end of which comprises an eye 40 caught to a strap 42 (the means d) integrally formed on the body 20.

The straps 42 are symmetrically arranged on the body in the form of accessory just described,

inasmuch as the same is intended to be used with an article of jewelry whose attaching pin passes near its center of gravity. In the event the brooch and pin are not so balanced, a modified form of accessory 44, shown in Fig. 3, may be employed. Basically the accessory 44 differs from the accessory [2 in the asymmetrical disposition of the means (1 with respect to the bod l2. Said means, as shown, comprises an aperture 45 near one end of the body and an aperture 48 at the free end of an arm 50 integrally connected and extending from the body. The accessory 44 embodies a slight further difference, via, its laterally extending arms 52 are oblique rather than perpendicular to the body I2 as is the case with the arms 34. This enables said arms 52 to avoid known openings in plaque. However, the arms 34 can be suitably deformed to avoid openings which ordinarily would lie under their tips by either twisting said arms or so bending the same that they engage the plaque at points spaced 6 from these tips.

It will thus be seen that I have provided jewelry accessories which achieve the several objects of this invention and are well adapted to meet the conditions of practical use.

As various possible embodiments might be made of the above invention, and as various changes might be made in the embodiments above set forth, it is to be understood that all matter herein set forth or shown in the accompanying drawings is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. An accessory for transforming a pin-attached article of jewelry into a band-attached ornament, said accessory comprising an elongated substantially plane sheet metal body disposed in back of said pin; ears integrally projecting from said body adjacent the opposite ends thereof, said ears being pierced in registry to detachably receive the pin of the article of jewelry, means integrally fixed to and extending from adjacent the opposite longitudinal edges of said body in the same direction as the ears toward the back of the article of jewelry for contacting the rear face of said article at at least two spaced points, One on each lateral side of the pin, a band, and means to secure ends of the band to said body.

2. An accessory as set forth in claim 1 wherein the means extending from the body for contacting the rear face of the article of jewelry comprise resilient elements.

3. An accessory as set forth in claim 1 wherein the means extending from the body for contacting the rear face of the article of jewelry comprise deformable resilient elements.

4. An accessory as set forth in claim 1 wherein the means extending from the body for contacting the rear face of the article of jewelry comprise soft self-form-maintaining elements.

5. An accessory as set forth in claim 1 wherein the means extending from the body for contacting the rear face of the article of jewelry comprise soft metal elements.

6. An accessory as set forth in claim 1 wherein the body and the means extending therefrom for contacting the rear face of the article of jewelry are in one piece with the sheet metal body.

ERNST A. BOHLINGER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 645,108 Links Mar. 13, 1900 1,491,578 Ballou et a1. Apr. 22, 1924 1,756,041 Vance Apr. 29, 1930 2,274,269 Jellinek Feb. 24, 1942 

